Rite Aid announces Eckerd purchase

Rite Aid today said it has completed its acquisition of 1,854 Brooks and Eckerd stores, including 353 locations in New York state.

Rite Aid said it will rebrand all of the stores under its own name, giving it 730 stores in New York. The nearly $3 billion cash-and-stock acquisition gives Rite Aid control over 5,000 stores nationwide.

The Federal Trade Commission has approved the deal, though it is requiring the company to sell 26 of its stores, including eight in New York.

Meanwhile, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo this morning said that in some parts of New York, Rite Aid and Eckerd are often the only drugstore alternatives.

The FTC settlement requires Rite Aid to sell stores in those communities, Cuomo said, and for the first time a Walgreens, Medicine Shoppe, or Kinney will open in those locations. One of the stores to be sold is in Mechanicville.